I am working on a final book about the deaths, accidents, and injuries in the Superstition Wilderness Area. Similar to "Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon." The writing of this book has been a trying experience trying to compile the needed material from periodicals, death certificates, medical examiners reports and other sources. There are many fables about deaths and accidents in the wilderness. I have been working on this manuscript for two years and have compiled almost three hundred pages that will be edited of course.

I would like to visit with you and Randy about the Rendezvous for next year sometime in the next couple of months or so. I did send Randy a note on face book and he agreed.

Take care,

Tom Kollenborn

Hi Tom - sounds like another interesting book. Just wanted to let you know the Wayne (somehiker) who posts here is not the same Wayne who works with Randy on the Rendezvous.

Hi Wayne Spencer: Yes, I do mix the two of you up once in awhile on line. I will try to be careful in the future. I am still working on place names in the SWA. The more you work on them the more you realize how work there is to do. My database had grown another 1000 names including alternates, new ones, and unknown names that just pop out of no where. Often many of these place names are made up by prospectors themselves as they go along. Place names are a confusing myriad of undocumented names often serving as alternates. It is fun trying to separate the actual source from many different stories. Such names as Rattlesnake Hill, Spring Cat Hill, Drop-In-The-Bucket Springs, Deer Horn Springs or Seep and etc. Thanks for your interest.... Tom Kollenborn

Tom:
Thanks for the info about the bat cave that you shared at the rendezvous.I'll post some of the more recent photos in this topic,when I have some time.You may have seen some I posted a couple of weeks ago over on T-Net.A bit of a mystery though,as to who built the ladder and scaffolding,and why?.

Wayne: It has been about 12 years since I have been to the bat cave. I used my boat and went up Canyon Lake beyond
Beer Can point and then into a cove and walked from there to the Bat Cave. Yes, the bat guano also concerned Jim Hatt and I. Jim wandered around in it more than I did. We didn't have any respirators or even goggles. I took a few photos and I still have them. The old steel ladder, cable and wood ladder were all there when Jim and I hiked into the area. It is a very interesting place to visit when properly protected with the right kind of breathing gear or maybe when the ground is real wet during the winter months. Thanks for posting all the wonderful photographs. They are much better than mine. Someday we ought to get together for lunch or breakfast and chat. Tom.

Tom:
I had thought you had said the ladder wasn't there at the time of your visit,but I must have misunderstood...I do remember you saying about ten years,so that part I got right ! Did you say that Clay had also been there?That I wasn't too sure of,but I would thnk that a few would have gone out for a look,once word got around.It's a tough one to get to though.I was out there about 4 yrs ago,and the stretch between the lake and the canyon below has been greatly washed out.When I was there before,there were two vertical drops/waterfalls which had to be climbed down to reach the inlet.This time there was only huge boulders to climb through and around,rather than having to do any significant climbing.
I'm sometimes surprised at how long wood can last out there.The plank I found below was still sound and barely weathered.The steel ladder section in the photo was just beginning to rust,even though unpainted and exposed on the slope below.I wonder when and who pulled it down?
Apparently,it was still up there two years ago.
Did you and Jim investigate the cave or mine below the big opening?
There were several areas where pick marks were clearly evident,but any muck or tailings had been removed.Everything is covered with a thick coat of hardened grey-brown dust,but if you chip that away,underneath is all a brittle dark greenish quartz-like material,which shatters into sharp splinters when struck with the hammer.Not sure what the proper name is,but I know of another location where I found more of the same.
Joe R. informed that a small scale guano operation was done there in the 1930's.Everything out there now seems much more recent than that,however.
I'd still like to get up top for looksee,though.
Just need to be better equipped.

If I get down early next year,I'd love to get together for a chat.Got a few questions and maybe some research better discussed in that kind of setting.
Also would love to see the stone you found on Blacktop years ago,while out at the Harnish dig.

Wayne: Jim and I visited the Bat Cave up Canyon Lake beyond Beer Can Point around 1994 or 1995. I didn't recall the ladder, but I do believe it was there and I didn't recognize it as such. Jim and I didn't have much time and I was worried about my boat being left alone. It was tied and anchored in the rocks. The inlet on the lake that leads to the Bat Cave is on the right side going up the lake a short distance beyond Beer Can Point. Maybe a half mile or so......I hope this helps. I think Jim explored the mine tunnel below. He like climbing around in those old holes, but I did not like to do it.

We took a few photographs. I will try to find them. I will have to remember how to post photo on this site. Maybe somebody will have to send me some directions. I don't have Jim to ask how to do it now.

Log on to Photobucket----if that's what your using
-Find the photo and and copy and paste the "img" code below the photo to your post,wherever you want the photo to appear in the post.
-When you copy the code,merely place your cursor on the code before you press the mouse button to highlight it.This highlights the entire code for copying.

Bill Burger (non-game specialist)of the AZ Fish and Game Dept. had left a note at the cave in Aug.2010 asking whoever had built the ladder to please contact him.Wanted to know what they saw.I kinda doubt they ever got back to him.